Winterville opened its magical doors on Tuesday 2 nd December and critics have already heaped praise on the brand new event One newspaper wrote that Winterville is an alternative festive experience with high-quality food and drink thats the antithesis of corporate Christmas theme parks calling it fun local and creative So when Event Industry News spoke to Timmy Sampson from Bearded Kitten the organisation tasked with the creative production of Winterville it became fairly obvious why the reviewer has used those phrases Based on Fish Island less than a mile from Wintervilles home of Victoria Park Bearded Kittens own mantra is that they design fun The company has recently delivered the Christmas Parade for Westfield Stratford which included the creation of giant Christmas presents so is no stranger to large-scale festive projects Having met with the Winterville organisers in early summer 2014 to establish a basic brief the company was tasked with the design and build of the events entire architecture and visual presentation with its creative team taking in Flemish Scandinavian and Bavarian influences in order to land on the finished concept The organisers knew that they wanted certain elements like an archway at the entrance and some sort of centerpiece for the town but the rest was very much left to us said Timmy We created a 75m high clock tower which stands at the heart of Winterville and for the bar we wanted to create an East London twist on a traditional Après ski venue Unlike other winter events what Bearded Kitten has delivered is not far off a movie back-lot The full-scale building facades are accompanied by completely bespoke structures that house the bar and cafe All of them have been designed in full consultation with the end users meaning the well-known industry supplier Peppermint were involved in the process of creating the building that house the 400 capacity bar All of the elements have been painstakingly built from scratch in Bearded Kittens own studio and warehouse Working with collaborators Silverstreak who built the internal layer-scaff that supports the structures careful consideration was paid to the materials used for a number of reasons as Timmy explained Winterville is slightly unusual for us given the duration of the event We had to be very careful to select materials that would withstand being outdoors for a full month in poor weather We also used CNC routers to precision engineer all the elements so as to ensure a perfect finish Where possible the elements will then be retained re-vamped re-used or recycled for next years event The visual tone set by Winterville 2014 is very much part of a long-term plan Bearded Kitten already has one eye on the 2015 and 2016 events with the intention being to expand the site with more elements based on the design concept With positive reviews and excellent visitor numbers after only its first weekend the design of Winterville has clearly been met with approval ad